PhillGood Festival Fires Up the Alt Scene with Explosive Line-up in Bulgaria
It’s not an easy task to make your way into the competitive festival landscape in Europe – but the debut edition of PhillGood Festival made a bold step into turning the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv into the go-to hub for live alternative music to thrive in. Drawing in big-name artists including The Cure, Gorillaz and Wolf Alice, the three-day event saw thousands of fans being captured in a music euphoria that will last for times to come.
Here is our breakdown of how it went down at PhillGood Festival which attracted between 18,000 and 20,000 people each day, spanning three stages that covered anything and everything from indie, alternative, techno, hip-hop and experimental music.
Day 1: The Subways
Being it hard to experience all the hustle and bustle at the festival, I was able to catch the second opening act on the main stage – English rock band The Subways who captured the attention with an enthralling set. Aside from the charging energy on stage, what stood out throughout were the courteous efforts to keep the audience engaged. In-between performances of notable titles such as ‘I Want to Hear What You Have Got to Say’, ‘We Don’t Need Money to Have a Good time’ and ‘Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’, frontman and guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist and vocalist Charlotte Cooper took turns in greeting and thanking the audience in perfect Bulgarian. The pinnacle of their gig was, of course, their emblematic 2005 hit ‘Rock & Roll Queen’, during which Lunn sang a verse translated in Bulgarian, to the amazement and appreciation of the audience.
Day 1: Wolf Alice
Festival veterans Wolf Alice got on stage at 9:00pm sharp to deliver a varied set of their emblematic dream-pop, slower-tempoed tunes mixed with heavier, grunge-inspired sound. The setlist included several titles off their latest album, including ‘Bloom Baby Bloom’, ‘Just Two Girls’ and ‘White Horses’. But the energy really picked up in the second half, with impressive performances of ‘Bros’ and ‘Smile’ which demonstrated the prowess of vocalist Ellie Rowsell. A key moment was the psychedelic performance of ‘Yuk Foo’ which saw Rowsell using ahandheld megaphone instead of a traditional microphone to amplify the song’s distorted sound. Of course, there was only one way to bring Wolf Alice’s gig to a proper completion – ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ brought its synth-driven, dream pop essence in its full shine, setting the perfect mood for welcoming the headliner in a short while.
Day 1: The Cure
The highlight of the night (and of the festival, really) for me – and I would suspect for many other festivalgoers – was the first-ever live show by The Cure in Bulgaria. To emphasise how huge of a deal this was – we are talking about one of the most defining bands throughout history that has been around for 50 years! So, it is no surprise that the audience held its breath in absolute awe and admiration when vocalist Robert Smith and his bandmates appeared on stage. The opening notes to ‘Alone’ from the band’s last album, ‘Songs Of A Lost World’, were in a harmonised attunement to Smith’s pace, as he walked every perimeter of the stage – in what appeared to be his attempt to fully take in the love and appreciation by the crowd, and to honour all this in return. A mammoth set lasting nearly two and a half hours fully immersed both the band and the audience in a united, transcending, soulful journey that is hard to put into words. Emblematic songs including ‘Pictures of You’, ‘Inbetween Days’, ‘Just Like Heaven’ and ‘A Forest’ were expected staples in the setlist, while the encore comprising another nine (!) songs included all-time favourites ‘Friday I’m In Love’, ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ which saw the crowd chanting as one. If there is anyone who would still challenge the relevance of The Cure in this day and age – the purest way to be convinced is by experiencing their music live, to savour every moment just like Smith intended to and to share the emotional intensity of the nostalgia that is woven into the heart and soul of the band’s legacy.
Day 2: Hayes & Y
After a long night and unforgivable hot weather the following day, I only managed to capture a few artists on the second festival day which featured a plethora of artists worth seeing. A fittingly good warm-up came from Bulgarian-Finnish indie rock band Hayes & Y which gathered a big crowd at the PhillCool stage and performed some of its most notable songs, including ‘Leave Forever’, ‘Tell Me, Tell Me, Tell Me’ and ‘Terminal 0’. The band had a few surprises up their sleeve, including a short improvisation of vocalist Blagoslav Anastasov who played a beer bottle as a percussion instrument and bringing Stenli, one of the most popular pop-rock Bulgarian artists, for a joint performance of the latter’s biggest hit to date, ‘Obseben’ (translated to ‘Obsessed’ from Bulgarian).
Day 2: Gorillaz
The apogee came after 10:30pm when the headliner of the night Gorillaz showed up on stage, introducing their vastly artistic music selection to the Bulgarian audience for the first time ever. Damon Albarn and a crew of more than 10 musicians and guest artists opened their set with the title track off their latest album, ‘The Mountain’, followed by one of their most recent singles, ‘The Happy Dictator’. In fact, the latter gave away where the whole show was headed – wearing a camouflage outfit, Albarn orchestrated strong statements on various political and social issues through songs including ‘Dirty Harry’, ‘Kids With Guns’ and ‘Rhinestone Eyes’. The revolutionary spirit could be felt everywhere, but its climax came when Albarn took off a layer of his outfit to show a t-shirt with the sign “Студенти побеђују” (“Studenti pobeđuju”) in support of mass civic protests in Serbia (which neighbours Bulgaria). Moving beyond the political discourse, the set also included ‘On Melancholy Hill’, a surprising performance of ‘She’s My Collar’ (debut for the band’s 2026 tour) and ‘Stylo’. The band finished off with the unmissable anthems that shaped the early and mid-00s – ‘Feel Good Inc.’ and ‘Clint Eastwood’, both of which made the crowd go totally bonkers. It goes without saying that all of this was accompanied by Gorillaz’ signature cartoons projected on the massive screen behind the live crew, depicting the band’s music videos and animated visual scenes curated exclusively for the tour.
In addition to these shows, PhillGood Festival also brought performances from 30+ other artists, including Moby, Suede, Einstürzende Neubauten, Just Mustard, Kneecap and Apashe & Brass Orchestra. With a line-up of this calibre for a debut edition, it is certain that Plovdiv is growing to become a renewed festival force in the region (further solidified by the annual Hills of Rock which kicks off at the end of this week).